School violence: Who is the culprit; gun lobby or lack of self-awareness and social skills?

In Texas. in the the gun shooting in an elementary school, 19 children have been shot dead in the school's primary section among 21 killed by lone gun wielding adolescent of 18 years who too was killed by the police. Many children and school staff members have been injured in the attack.

As usual, the gun lobby with the political clout of the USA is being blamed for the recurrent incidents of mass killing in the schools in the country.

However, it needs to be understood that school violence has much larger dimension and is needed to be understood as any activity that can create a disturbance and conflicts in an educational system of the institution.

According to social psychologists, it's not just school shootings that constitute the violence in schools. It includes verbal and physical altercations as well as ragging which can take ugly turns..

Currently, bullying through electronic means or social media, gang activities within the school and bad social pedagogy are also the causes of school violence.

Many educational psychologists believe the lack of self-awareness and social skills is creating self-esteem problems among students that get translated into school violence.

According to UNESCO [1], "Violence in educational settings is a daily reality that denies millions of children and young people the fundamental human right to education. One estimate by Plan International suggests that 246 million children and adolescents experience violence in and around school every year. Girls are disproportionately affected, as are those perceived not to conform to prevailing sexual and gender norms."

It has been suggested that that schools need to ensure all students have 'access to safe, inclusive, health-promoting learning environments' as a strategic priority to reduce school based conflicts through UNESCO's 'Connect with Respect Program'.

Here are two haiku that describe the root cause of school violence

School violence acts -

Apathy, disaffection

Are the root causes

~*~

Peer-to-peer violence

Teacher-n-taught conflicts

Bully gangs grow

[1] https://en.unesco.org/themes/school-violence-and-bullying